지정자문인과 감사인의 전문성이 코넥스기업의 상장성과에 미치는 영향

This study investigates whether the expertise of nominated advisors and auditors has a positive impact on the listing success of KONEX firms. Small-and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs) heavily rely on bank loans, and it leads heavier burden of the interest to the firms. To improve SME's' access to the capital market, the government and the Korea Exchange decided to establish the capital market for SMEs and venture companies to support their initial growth stages. Therefore, on July 1st, 2013, the KONEX(Korea New Exchange) market was established. To promote the activation of the KONEX market, the Government provide various support meas ures, such as easing entry requirements and easing disclosure obligations by exempting quarterly and semi-annual reports. Also, the Government alleviates the burden of corporate governance structure by exempting the duties of appointment of outside directors and standing auditors and also alleviates mandatory adoption of K-IFRS (Korea International Financial Reporting Standard). The KONEX market introduces nominated advisors system to alleviate the burden of disclosure and listing maintenance for KONEX firms. The brokerage houses with a trading license can be nominated advisors as conducting due diligence, preparing the listing eligibility report, assisting with listing preparation and disclosure, and recommending transfer status from KONEX market to KOSDAQ market. The nominated advisors with expertise have lower client dependence and want to maintain their reputation. Therefore, we hypothesize the nominated advisors with expertise would manage their client firms more effectively to avoid reputational damage or disciplinary actions for mismanagement. Similarly, the auditors with expertise care their reputations. With abundant resources of audit firms, auditors with expertise would evaluate KONEX firms more specifically and also manage KONEX firms more carefully. We measure the expertise of nominated advisors using the listing returns of securities firms provided by the Korea Exchange, while the expertise of auditors is measured based on the size of the audit firms. We measure the success of listing of the firms by their listing status, Violator of Disclosure Regulations, Suspension of Trading and Resumption of Trading, and Fast-track program(a transition to the KOSDAQ market). We find the firms managed by nominated advisors with higher expertise are less likely to be delisted, less likely to be designated as Violator of Disclosure Regulations, and less likely to face Suspension of Trading and Resumption of Trading. Additionally, those firms are more likely to transfer their listing status to the KOSDAQ market. Companies audited by specialist auditors are more likely to transfer to the KOSDAQ market. However, specialist auditors do not have a significant impact on the listing status and designation as Violator of Disclosure Regulations or Suspension of Trading and Resumption of Trading. The nominated advisors play an important role in the KONEX market as supporting listing procedures, providing advice and consultation on the capital market regulations, representing disclosures, and supporting organization of investor relations (IR) and so on. Therefore, this study is significant as analyzing the impact of nominated advisors impact on the listing performance of KONEX market. We interpret our findings that the Government and the Korea Exchange need policies to enhance the professionalism of nominated advisors. In order to activate the KONEX market, as well as to protect investors and ensure the sustainable growth of KONEX firms, institutional improvements are deemed necessary.